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1. My class found a way to block swatches in a manner becoming a retreat.

2. Knitting with very fine silk requires concentration.

3. Much of the serving staff was converted. (That’s Allison. Lisa had her up in knitting in minutes, and as of yesterday she could knit, purl, work garter, stockinette, ribbing, k2tog, yarn over and explain the difference while reading her work. Some people are taught the fibre arts. Others are called to them.)

4. Everyone learned how to make silk hankies (mawata) right from the cocoons. It was very gross, but fun. (Tina took the bugs out of the middles for the woosie-pants.)

5. We reeled silk. (You will note that I have rigged a high-tech approach. Books, wire hangars and duct tape. Worked great.)

6. Can you see how many cocoons are reeling off at once? It still made a very, very fine thread.

7. Now I’m spinning. Hopelessly behind on the Tour de Fleece, especially considering that I’ve got a long day of travel tomorrow- and unlike my buddy Denny, I haven’t yet figured a way to spin on a plane.

Looks great fun. I am impressed with Allison’s progress – woot. I wondered how you would go with the silk larvae conundrum, looks like you did well, and the multiple cocoon delayering looks a lot faster than the ‘by hand’ method I have seen previously. Isn’t it great to have fun and be creative (and that means everybody).
Like the water receptacle for wetting swatches, very ‘necessity inspired’.

Meh, you can totally catch up on the spinning. Just go home, lock yourself in a room (the one with the most food/beer–kitchen I’d assume), and proclaim all services “closed” for the duration of the tour. I’m sure everyone will understand.

Be careful about that spinning on board the plane. You already know how “anti-anything to do with yarn” those airlines can be. I can just hear the flight attendants now,”You could decapitate your fellow flyers in the event of severe turbulence!” (Or, at least, threaten their lady bits)

Glad you’re back up and spinning!
I have to disagree: making mawatas is so not gross, at least not after you’ve cleaned up all the frass. And rams is right – we totally should have had a conga line of carcasses. My bad.
Happy trails!

HOly crap . You had to remove the worm or whatever it is inside those cute little cocoons ?! Just lost my love for those cuties. Does silk hold up to gin or vodka or is that water in the glass. Guess water is best eh ? Happy travels .

I went from reading a Newsweek article on how to foster creativity, and how creativity begets creativity, to reading this. Duct tape and coat hangars and those silkworms de Kooning: totally and completely awesome. (And that yarn on that bobbin is *gorgeous*.)

You should have SAID! I have lots of recipes for the larvae that you cook in the cocoons! It is a delicacy for the Thai and they make a great-looking ‘yum’ (Thai word for sour salad) out of them that they demonstrated at the annual silk fair here in Bangkok (well, looked good until I realize what the main ingredient was).
So, BTW, the worms do provide some much needed protein for the silk families. (Saw some of the girls doing the boiling and with the forked stick to keep the thread coming off sneaking some of the little larvae when no one was looking – just plain and boiled!)
Oh – and they have a new silk here in Thailand called “cotton” silk that allows the larvae to hatch before they take the silk off the cocoon!

According to the Ravelry rules, any fiber prep counts for the Tour de Fleece as well, so all that work counts, too. 🙂
At least, that’s what I’m telling myself about the fleece I’ve got on the back deck waiting for the rain tonight (I’m calling it an experiment–we’ll see how clean the rain gets it before I scour it).

Miss Harlot, you finally convinced me to go forth with spinning! I bought a wheel, and I’m in the process of learning how to use it!
I think you’ll also be proud – I bought a Canadian wheel (one that isn’t made anymore!), and it’s beautiful! If you want to see pictures, please look at my blog. 😀http://wcknitwit.blogspot.com/

Wow, were those cocoons in a crock pot? Hmmm, I’m not sure I’m ready to turn my crock pot over to insect cases. This may be a sign that you’ve gone round the bend just a tad, and I mean that in the nicest possible way! I guess nothing is too far for fiber?

I have two mulberry trees in my front yard…I think I need to look into sericulture! Altho I’m not sure mine are the “right” kind of mulberry for the little wormies, these trees deliver some fantastic fruit. And whatever that is on the lazy kate, I’d like double please!! It’s lovely, very colorful.

I’ve come to the conclusion that what we do is just simply magical. Magical. Imagine starting out with those little cocoons and coming out with lacy, yummy goodness. It’s a magical place where we live.

What a glorious time! I had to laugh at the cocoons because they reminded me of Italian gnocchi and made me hungry(not a good idea). I am in lust with your spun singles. The colours are mind blowing. Good luck with getting back on track with the Tour de Fleece goal. Cheers and red wine, Hazel.

a year in China taught me that those little brown things on a styrofoam tray in the supermarket – looked like elongated brazil nuts – were in fact silk worms in the ” raw ” and one fried them – quickly – for a crunchy snack. Never got up the courage although my husband said they really don’t have a taste – but tasted like cornmeal mush in a crisp shell. I didnt try fried scorpion either – A good Chinese mother serves a plate of friend scorpion to her child the night before important exams – brain food.

I am sure that Denny will share plane spinning techniques if you ask nicely…and bribe her with something delectable!!!
A friend and I were discussing silk cocoons…and she was just amazed that there were caterpillars in them. It was like, well duh!!!

I have a friend who reels her own silk and stops when she gets to the point where she can see what’s inside the cocoons. Wastes some silk but she would rather not see them if she can avoid it.
Cooking the cocoons in hot water softens the gum that “glues” the silk filaments together in the cocoon shape. BTW, the cocoons have already been baked when you buy them, so no live bugs are left.
Eating cooked insects is really no weirder than eating cooked lobsters, when you look at it objectively, but cultural taboos (and those things can be powerful) do make it difficult for most of us to contemplate.
Silk made from cocoons with “escaped” caterpillars has existed for quite a while, but it tends to be of lower quality because the filaments get broken. The reason reeled silk is so strong and so shiny is because of the long unbroken filaments (rather like nylon).
And OK, gotta share this will fellow fanatics — a week of knitting cartoons, starting with this one:http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/100708.html

When I was in junior school I remember raising silkworms in a shoe box at home, feeding them on lettuce or mulberry leaves. We also got the silk worms to spin their own little silk hankies. You cut a simple shape out of a piece of card stock 4 or 5 inches across – heart shape, circle, oval, and tape it from the underside to the top of a pop bottle so that you have a little platform. Then when a silk worm has stopped eating and is ready to spin its cocoon, you put it onto this platform. It wanders about the platform for several days looking for a place to anchor its thread and covers the card with silk in the process. It doesn’t fall off (or maybe my mother remembers that differently…) and eventually it turns into a larva without a cocoon around it. Then you carefully peel the silk off the cardboard, and you have a thin piece of silk with a slightly thicker outline in the shape of your card. I made a pale yellow heart which I kept for years.

I really hope my comment and question don’t hurt or offend you, but it’s an honest one that I ask out of my own internal (and ongoing) struggles. I do hope you receive them in the spirit that I mean them, and wish you might offer me a rationale that puts said struggles to rest.
Being a lifelong vegetarian (culturally, but more and more a self-aware choice as I became an adult), the idea of using silk / leather has made me uncomfortable for some years now. It feels like I can justify wearing a product of something that was alive even less than eating it, especially if, as in the case of silk, it’s less necessity and more luxury. My religion doesn’t see the use of silk as incompatible with the purported nonviolence of vegetarianism (leather is defined as unacceptable), which doesn’t make sense to me as the “cooking” of the cocoons seems really cruel. (Community elders get really mad if I say this….) How do you, personally, reconcile your choices? I love everything about all kinds of silk as a finished product, but am less and less able to get past how it is made…and would REALLY like to.

How does Denny spin on a plane? oh for the love of all the gods, how? Those of us who are sometimes confined to a seated position for various reasons would love to know. I can park and draft but it doesn’t go very fast and would definately invade my seatmate’s space. Guest post, oh pretty please?